17 days of nothing but drinking, exploring, relaxing, sleeping, yoga-ing, and daytime television watching in New York City…and finally, FINALLY. It has hit me.

I won’t be back in Ann Arbor in the fall. I won’t be back in Ann Arbor any time soon. I’m done with school. All of the moments spent there have led me here, and now here is what “it” will be from now on, and “there” will always be that special somewhere behind me, a place to be cherished and treasured.

The trigger was strange and sort of funny. My bestest friend Aislinn is currently having her last night in Ann Arbor and we are Facebook chatting about what food she should order in. And all of a sudden I had this big wave of realization that I won’t ever have a night like that in Ann Arbor again. Jimmy John’s because it’s cheaper, or Pizza House because it’s more delicious? Go out to the house party, stay in and drink wine with Nicole? Spend the sunny afternoon reading in the Diag or the Law Quad? Yes, it’s hitting in waves and it’s hitting hard.

I’m glad, though. I was starting to worry that I had prematurely divorced myself from undergrad and Ann Arbor all together (somewhere around October of 2010), and that I’d never have that big wave of sadness/nostalgia that was realizing that it’s over and honey we’re never goin’ back. But it’s there, that honest feeling in my gut that Ann Arbor is now, officially, a place in my past that will always be a little more precious than the rest. 

And let’s be real, I miss Jimmy John’s. The closest JJ is in New Jersey. WHADDAFUXUPWITTHAT?

Love,
Emma